Sunday, September 14, 2008

We went to Boston for a week to visit Nate's sister, Brianne, and family. It was such a fun trip! Her husband is attending Harvard Dental School (I know, he's ridiculously smart) and has three years left until graduation. I don't think I've ever been on a vacation that was more jam-packed with things to do...and I think we did about every one of those things. Here's the run-down: (beware: this is possibly my longest post ever. There are 41 photos...which really isn't that bad considering I took over 1,300.)

Saturday: Arrive in Providence, RI and drive the 60 miles to Boston. As soon as we get to Nate's sister's house, leave for Fenway Park. Red Sox vs. White Sox.

We actually got pretty decent seats, right behind home place, about 20 rows back. (Thanks to Craigslist!) That meant we could get some close-ups of the players, including Ken Griffey Jr...one of Nate's faves.

Sunday: Go to church, recover from yesterday's travels, play with the kids in the backyard.

Claire and Marcus

Miss Brooklyn, climbing up the slide. The girl won't walk, but she'll climb like a monkey.

Attempt #1 at getting a shot of all three grandkids:

Monday: Marblehead Beach, MA and then over to Salem, MA where all the Witch Trials happened. Nate described this city perfectly as, "commercialized witchcraft". When we left I felt like I knew nothing more than before I went.

Claire loves the beach. Wish we had one.

Claire and Brooklyn loved the buckets and shovels.

Marcus enjoying the water.

So the water was freezing cold. And I'm not just being a wimp. It must have been 50 degrees. I didn't want to go out, but Nate dared me. I hate it when I get dared. So much harder to say no. So I made a deal with him...if I got out far enough to get my waist wet, then he had to swim 20 strokes out. It seemed like a fair bet to me and he went for it. So here I am with Brianne, keeping up my end of the bargain.

And here's Nate and Aaron keeping up their end...

Definitely a fair bet.

Cute shot of Aaron and Brianne

We buried Brooklyn and Marcus. Claire, of course, wouldn't even think of being buried...she's much too busy for that.

Group shot

Tuesday: Boston Public Gardens and Boston Commons. Then over to Downtown Crossing for a little shopping.

Taking a ride on the Swan Boats.

Attempt #14 at getting a shot of all three grandkids:

Walked across the street to see the Cheers bar.

We stopped at an awesome park in the middle of Boston Commons and Claire found a splash pad. She loves to get wet!

Wednesday: Boston Temple and Harvard Square.The temple was gorgeous and the weather couldn't have been better.

Family shot

Attempt #26 at getting a shot of all three grandkids:

Sitting on the steps of one of the libraries at Harvard Square. Claire was very enthusiatic about it.

Attempt #39 at getting a shot of all three grandkids (possibly the best one from the trip):

Thursday: Boston Children's Museum, then the Boston Aquarium, then over to some giant water fountains for the kids to play. That night we went Candlepin Bowling.

Claire climbing up a crazy maze...Marcus made it all the way to the top!

I loved these smocks the kids wore while playing in the water zone.

Claire and I wearing our engineer hard hats like Nate has gets to wear when he goes to Rawlins.

At the aquarium...where Claire pulled my earring out, making it fall into the penguin cage, causing Nate to have to go ask an employee to swim over and retrieve it. Retrieve it they did. What a great husband I have.

Playing in the water fountains...they were a little too big for Claire. She would get close, but when the water turned on she would run away crying. So I had to hold her so she could touch it. But Marcus was all about it, as you can see.

That night we went Candlepin Bowling. Apparently it is very popular on the east coast. Its basically the same thing as bowling, but the pins are tall cylinders, making them much harder to hit down. The five of us played two games and the highest score among us was 75 (which happened to be my score, not to rub it in Nate). I think I'll stick to regular bowling, but we still had a great time.

Friday: Freedom Trail. Whew. That's a long walk and we didn't even do the whole thing. That night we hit up the Italian District in the north end of Boston.

Paul Revere's house...surprisingly ordinary.

Statue of Paul Revere and right behind us is the Old North Church where he hung the lanterns.

What she does when you say, "Claire-do the face." Still not sure where she learned this, but I'm pretty sure one of my brothers had something to do with it.

That night we went to the North End and ate at a restaurant called "Villa Francesca". Yum.

Capped off the night at Mike's Pastry where the line was out the door. The cannoli was well worth the wait.

Saturday: Photo shoot with Brianne's family on the Harvard campus. See my photo site for pics on that. Leave for home that afternoon.

What an amazing trip. We felt a little bad for the kids because every day we would come home, they would have dinner and go to bed at 7pm because they were so exhausted. Claire was getting 14 hours of sleep a night.

Thanks again so much to Brianne and fam...you guys couldn't have been better hosts! Thanks for all the meals, picnics, entertainment, and for kicking your kids out of their room! And another big thanks to my dear friend, Kristy, for sending me a list of "must-dos" in Boston! Can't wait to do it again!